Inside Llewyn Davis Soundtrack, feature CD, 12/13

Brimming with music performed by Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Marcus Mumford and the Punch Brothers, Inside Llewyn Davis—in the tradition of O Brother, Where Art Thou?—is infused with the transportive sound of another time and place. Nonesuch Records has released the soundtrack to the movie, which opened on December 6.

Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the film stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and Justin Timberlake. Produced by T Bone Burnett and the Coen Brothers, with Marcus Mumford as its associate producer, the album features 12 new recordings created especially for the film. Also included is a never-before-released recording of Bob Dylan performing his song “Farewell,” which was originally recorded during the sessions for his album The Times They Are A-Changin' and is available exclusively on this soundtrack.

Inside Llewyn Davis is the Coen brothers’ fourth collaboration with T Bone Burnett; his soundtrack to their film O Brother, Where Art Thou? won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Producer of the Year. Inside Llewyn Davis recently won the Grand Prix at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a young folk singer (based on Dave Van Ronk) as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is at a crossroads. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles—some of them of his own making. Living at the mercy of both friends and strangers, scaring up what work he can find, Llewyn’s misadventures take him from the baskethouses of the Village to an empty Chicago club—on an odyssey to audition for a music mogul—and back again.